Nov 30, 2006 11:38 am US/Central
No. 2 U.S. Ethanol Producer To Open Plant In Minn.
Sioux Falls, S.D. (AP) ―
VeraSun Energy Corp., the nation's second-largest ethanol producer, said Thursday it has started construction on an ethanol plant near Welcome, Minn.
The biorefinery, which will be the Brookings, S.D.-based company's fifth, will be able to produce 110 million gallons of ethanol each year and process more than 39 million bushels of corn annually. It will also yield 350,000 tons of dried distillers grains, a byproduct of the ethanol process used in animal feed.
Construction at the 300-acre site is expected to take about 16 months, and initial work will include topsoil excavation, backfilling and building access roads. The plant will be a zero-discharge facility, meaning no water other than evaporation will be emitted, said Paul Caudill, VeraSun's senior vice president of operations.
"Given the environmental challenges posed by the water in this area, we felt a zero-discharge design was the most efficient approach," Caudill said in a release.
The plant will employ about 50 workers.
Earlier this week, VeraSun announced it has started building an ethanol plant of similar capacity in the northwest Iowa town of Hartley.
The company has two ethanol plants in operation -- in Aurora near the company's headquarters and in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Construction of a plant in Charles City, Iowa, is ahead of schedule and should begin operating by the end of the second quarter of 2007, company officials have said.
VeraSun expects to have all five plants running by the end of the first quarter 2008, which would give the company an annual ethanol production capacity of about 560 million gallons.
In early November, VeraSun announced it would develop a large-scale, commercial facility for making biodiesel from oil extracted from distillers grain. The company hasn't yet decided where the biodiesel plant would be built.
Shares of ethanol companies closed higher Wednesday, as higher oil prices indicated demand for alternative energy sources is likely to remain strong.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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